[intro]Dealer Who Moved from New York City to Buffalo Seeking Better Life[/intro]

The Buffalo News writes an obituary for a native son who returned to the city nearly 20 years ago after making his name as successful New York City art dealer:

David K. Anderson, the high echelon New York City art dealer who culminated his career by returning home to Buffalo and turning a former school building into a world-class art gallery, died Saturday in Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital, Amherst. He was 74. […]

Mr. Anderson founded the Anderson Gallery in 1991 in University Heights […] After filling the new space with 7,000 paintings, prints and sculptures shipped from the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Mr. Anderson acknowledged he was gambling that the art market would beat a path to his door. It was a bet he ultimately lost.

But he clearly was happy to be home. In an interview before the 1991 opening, he called the quality of life here “incomparably better.” […]After the gallery faltered in 1999, Mr. Anderson initiated the donation of the $3 million building to the University at Buffalo, along with a substantial part of the multimillion-dollar collection and a $2 million charitable trust to help with gallery maintenance and exhibitions.

Mr. Anderson said the transfer was “part of a long-range plan to assure continuance of the gallery as a healthy and exhibiting gallery of contemporary art in Buffalo.” Calling the Anderson collection “world class,” Buffalo News Art Critic Richard Huntington said its continuation under UB was “the best possible news for Buffalo and the region.”

David K. Anderson, Art Dealer, Dies (Buffalo News)